Tour Cuts Poconos From Route

The Tour Du Pont, America's premiere cycling event, will not pedal through the Poconos this spring because of a push by organizers to move the race farther south.

"We had a very tough selection, but it just came down to logistics," said Steve Brunner, spokesman for Medalists Sports Inc., the Richmond, Va.-based organizers of the event. "Trying to get as far north as the Poconos and then come back down south just isn't possible in 11 days."

Meanwhile, the Poconos' exclusion from the Tour is being eyed as a major letdown by local officials.

"I'm very disappointed and disillusioned," said Bob Uguccioni, executive director of the Pocono Mountain Vacation Bureau. "We've been negotiating since June and they never told us there were any problems with logistics. If they had, we might have been able to work with them."

Because cycling's international governing body, the FICP, allows the Tour only 11 days of competition, it is impossible to move the event south and still hit the Poconos, Brunner said.

Whether the Poconos will be in the Tour's future remains uncertain.

The Tour hopes as early as 1995 to reach as far south as Atlanta. And if the FICP grants additional days, it might be possible to again stretch the event north to the Poconos, Brunner said.

"It was a very tough decision but it really had nothing to do with the Poconos or their bid," Brunner said. "They've done a great job in the past and I'd be the first one to say to everyone in the Poconos that we want to come back."

Medalists Sports is remaining tight-lipped about race route details, refusing to identify host cities until a news conference tomorrow before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Brenner said Pennsylvania will not be totally excluded from the event, however. Although he would not disclose the city, he did say cyclists will ride for one day in the southern portion of the state.

The Lehigh Valley was unable to raise enough money from local contributors and was bumped from the race last year. That left the Poconos as the only area stop for Tour cyclists.

The race -- then called the Tour de Trump -- made its debut in the Poconos in 1990, hosting the start of a leg. That meant the area merely saw the cyclist pedal out of town. The following year, however, fans saw a whole circuit race here as cyclists started and finished in Stroudsburg. Last year, the Poconos hosted a circuit as well as a start of another leg.

In past years, the event got mixed reviews locally. Some said it helped put the area on the map. Others called it a nuisance.

Local resorts and hotels last year spent an estimated $250,000 in in-kind services -- food and lodging -- for more than 700 people involved in the event, Uguccioni said. A dollar amount on the immediate economic boost to area businesses was never calculated, although officials believe it to have been minimal.

But what the event lacked in tourism dollars it more than made up for in national coverage as the Stroudsburg portion was viewed by millions on ESPN and CBS.

Come word of the rejection last week, local officials started planning their own race, The Tour de Pocono, slated for sometime in late June.

Uguccioni said organizers are eyeing a race solely in the Pocono region hoping to field 200 professional and amateur racers vying for $6,000 to $7,000 in prize money.

But that is little consolation. "It won't be the Tour Du Pont," he said. "It won't have Greg LeMond."

Added Uguccioni, "If (the Tour) decide to come back in the future, hopefully it will be on our terms."